Apple iPad announced

I don't know... 1.5 lbs., 10 hour battery and impressive gaming capability (it appears) with Qwerty word processing, powerpoint (or whatever apple calls theirs)...

If this thing had a forward facing camera and Skype I'd ditch my laptop and take it for international travel. Alas, it appears it does not.
 
I don't know... 1.5 lbs., 10 hour battery and impressive gaming capability (it appears) with Qwerty word processing, powerpoint (or whatever apple calls theirs)...

If this thing had a forward facing camera and Skype I'd ditch my laptop and take it for international travel. Alas, it appears it does not.

It's a new product category, so will take time to take off. If you ask me, the netbooks we see today are dead in 3 years since world+dog is gonna make iPad clones. :smile:

Seems like a merger of kindle and netbooks. If it came with a cover on the other side to protect the touchscreen, it'd be cool.

Apple A4 chip, hmm, where are the first 3 chips? ;)

I am quite sure it's a cortex A9, probably dual core as it has to run bigger apps. SGX 535 at the minimum to run 3D on a larger screen.
 
Most importantly they priced it at $499 which means it's almost an impulse buy for gadget geeks.
I predict apple sells many.

They just need a camera and skype :(
 
I use my iPhone to read e-books, newspapers, etc. frequently, so this looks not that bad. The price is also not bad either, althought the 3G option seems to be a little pricy.

The keyboard dock is also a nice touch. It's probably necessary for many if they want to use iWork on it.
 
For me I would see it as a wifi email, movies, games and skype device - which is about all I use my laptop for when I'm overseas as the days are shot with customers, etc. Right now I take a book, ipod for movies/music and a laptop for email/skype (my phone has email but 3G in China is $$$). So I could ditch a bunch and take an "iMaxiPad" and my phone if only it had skype!
 
I use my iPhone to read e-books, newspapers, etc. frequently, so this looks not that bad. The price is also not bad either, althought the 3G option seems to be a little pricy.

The keyboard dock is also a nice touch. It's probably necessary for many if they want to use iWork on it.

I thought they were a bit stingy on the 3G prices too. I don't see why they have to be a $130 premium.

In fact, right now I cannot quite say if I am disappointed or hyped about this product at all. Guess I will have to try it out first before forming a meaningful opinion.
 
I'd still prefer 200$ tegra2 tablet with bluetooth keyboard. Besides almost 1000$ for 64gb version with 3g is just too much IMO.

EDIT:
Don't see it becoming gaming machine. No hardware keys, only touchscreen(huge screen which is a downside cause your fingers will have to travel a lot when controlling) and have ever imagined playing anything on something so big while sitting on couch? Don't think so...
 
I use my iPhone to read e-books, newspapers, etc. frequently, so this looks not that bad. The price is also not bad either, althought the 3G option seems to be a little pricy.

The keyboard dock is also a nice touch. It's probably necessary for many if they want to use iWork on it.

The 3G chip prolly costs them something like ~$10. It's cell phone subsidy in reverse.
 
Most importantly they priced it at $499 which means it's almost an impulse buy for gadget geeks.
499 is only for the crappest version - and storage is of course not expandable; you'd think Apple would have heard of SD card slots, but of course they have - they're just too smart to actually go and stick one in their devices. "Smart" in the most sinister aspect of the word that is, because they rather want you to pay through the nose for the more expensive versions of their non-expandable hardware.

So yea, while $500 is cheap for Apple, it isn't particulary cheap for what you get for your money - a closed system that can't run any standard apps or games, can't run any standard OSes, can't do what you want, locked in tight with Apple DRM, has anemic custom CPU, and a price tag that quickly stomps northward into stoopid territory for the more capacious versions (particulary if you also want 3G)...

So this is Apple at their finest. Custom control freak hardware AND expensive. Business as usual from Cupertino.

But yea, apart from that, the thing's intriguing. Looks nice too, although I feel the bezel is a bit too large. Maybe it's needed for ergonomics though, so you don't make a lot of unwanted key presses while simply shifting the unit in your hands...

They just need a camera and skype :(
Yea, I really REALLY expected a (forward-facing) camera. What is it with Apple and their hate of video conferencing with their 3G hardware? :p
 
It's a new product category, so will take time to take off. If you ask me, the netbooks we see today are dead in 3 years since world+dog is gonna make iPad clones. :smile:

Only if it's successful. The Macbook Air didn't kill off netbooks.
 
I don't understand this thing. You need a PC to sync to, so what's the point of the keyboard doc? You need the keyboard doc to make good use of a word processor in iWork, but if you already have a PC ....

I know the virtual keyboard is much bigger, but that's actually worse than the iPhone. With the iPhone you can hold in both hands and type with your thumbs. Slow, but it works. With this, you have to sit and type like a full keyboard, so you'd have to put it on a table, or put it in your lap. That means you're hunched over the thing. Wouldn't want to type in my lap either. Oh, and looks like you can't multitask, so how productive would iWork really be?

eReader is nice, but it's no kindle (screen wise). For doing a lot of reading, there's nothing better than paper. E-paper is second. Matted LCD is a distant third. Glossy LCD is a long shot in fourth.

I guess it would be nice for movies on the plane/bus/train, and might be nice to carry around the office or at home, but you still need regular computer. Might be nicer if you were in a mansion and it took you forever to walk from one end to the other to get to your PC.

I'm sure it'll sell ok, but I think it needs to be more powerful to really be a huge revolution in the computing world. If this thing had the power of an iMac and had the functionality of a desktop, then I could understand why it would be so popular. You'd basically have a portable touchscreen display running a full PC OS, but with the ability to dock with a keyboard, mouse and other peripherals.
 
Well that's just it Scott. For me, a 20-30 hour transit is common (1-2 times per month). Something like this with a camera for Skype would be perfect for me for these trips. If you're not an air-travel warrior it's hard to see the point.

Also, a $200 Tegra might be nice, but there's no tablet interface half as nice as the single-tasking (why do you think the battery lasts so long on this thing :) ) iPad/iPhone for fingers - yet.

Maybe a Tegra with Droid 3.0 and forward facing camera...

As to the limits on Flash, yes, typical Apple. But then again their job is to make money and 3.8 Billion last quarter says they're good at it.

[Edit: one final thought - finger-based tablet = lots of dropped and cracked IPS panels]
 
HP Slate running windows 7 is better choice than this ipad. It runs full desktop OS, has multitouch screen and you can pair it with standard wired keyboard. Everything at similar price if not smaller(not sure about this one).
 
It's a new product category, so will take time to take off. If you ask me, the netbooks we see today are dead in 3 years since world+dog is gonna make iPad clones. :smile:

How is this a different product category than something like the Archos internet tablets or other android based tablets?

Seems like a merger of kindle and netbooks. If it came with a cover on the other side to protect the touchscreen, it'd be cool.

Anything with a LCD display is going to be sub-optimal as an eReader, and anything without a physical keyboard is not going to match a netbook.

The iPad is reasonable priced, but with an iPhone and a ultra portable laptop I see little use for the iPad. The iPad has an advantage compared to eReaders that it not a one trick pony, but on the other hand it does not do much really well (to be fair it does most thing better than an iPhone, but as long as it does not fit in my pocket, that does not really matter).

Apple A4 chip, hmm, where are the first 3 chips? ;)

I am quite sure it's a cortex A9, probably dual core as it has to run bigger apps. SGX 535 at the minimum to run 3D on a larger screen.

I agree
 
I'm sure it'll sell ok, but I think it needs to be more powerful to really be a huge revolution in the computing world. If this thing had the power of an iMac and had the functionality of a desktop, then I could understand why it would be so popular. You'd basically have a portable touchscreen display running a full PC OS, but with the ability to dock with a keyboard, mouse and other peripherals.

I do hope it to be powerful but I'm not holding my breadth :) You really can't expect too much from a 1GHz ARM core. My biggest problem with my iPhone is, well, it's being too slow on many occasions.

Multi-tasking wise, I think if it's able to quickly switch between applications it'd be fine (the background applications don't need to be running). Although this would require a pretty big amount of main memory.
 
I will definitely get one. Already started working on my 3D engine for the iPod/Iphone and want to play with this hardware as well.

Many days when I come from work I just browse a couple of web sites and read a bit, could do it sitting on my couch using this instead of the Mac Pro.
 
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